Absolute Control
by Ephidel
Summary: AU. Naruto was a boy full of potential. In another world, Naruto would never be more than the happy go lucky dead last that only managed to scrape by with luck. In another world, Naruto would never reach his full potential. Not in this world. Not a chance
1. Chapter 1

Well hello. This is my first Naruto story so tell me things such as, what I'm doing right, what I could improve, and your general opinion. If you wish to criticize, then give me constructive criticism. Not useless flames. Yeah. Well, here we go.

AN: I don't own Naruto, this story's plot, as it is AU, is mine.

Absolute Control

Uzumaki Naruto was a boy that was full of potential. He could become the savior of Konohagakure, or its destroyer. In another world, Uzumaki Naruto would be on team 7 along with Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, with Hatake Kakashi as his jounin instructor. In another world, Uzumaki Naruto would never amount to more than the happy-go-lucky dead last student that only managed to scrape by with luck and help from the Kyuubi. In another world, Uzumaki Naruto would never reach his full potential.

But not in this one. Not a chance.

* * *

"NARUTO! WAKE UP!" 

Blearily, Uzumaki Naruto, 8 years of age, brought his head up from the desk to stare blankly at Umino Iruka, the academy instructor.

"Huh...?"

The globule of drool hanging limply on the corner of the boy's mouth as well as his blank expression caused the rest of the class to burst into laughter.

Iruka gazed sternly at the young prankster. Even though the boy held the most fearsome demon in history, Iruka could not help but see himself in Naruto's position: The prankster, the boy who yearned for attention. Iruka sighed,

"Naruto, just for today, don't go taking any naps, today's lesson is about chakra control, one of the most tools ninja can have."

Turning to face the entire classroom, Iruka asked,

"Can anyone tell me some uses of chakra control?"

Haruno Sakura, self-proclaimed resident braniac, promptly raised her hand.

"Sakura?"

"Hai, Iruka-sensei. Chakra control is exactly what it sounds like. Control over the energy that Ninja use allows the user to perform numerous tasks, but the most important is in using the perfect amount of chakra needed to perform a jutsu, so as not to waste any. The more chakra a person has, the harder it is to control, so its best to start practicing in the genin years, when you don't have too much chakra yet. Also, control over chakra can let the user mold it to his or her use. Some examples of this are scaling walls without hands and using chakra to enhance movements."

"Excellent answer," Iruka said. Inwardly, though, he recognized a few phrases in her answer that were taken verbatim from the textbook. He doubted if she really understood what she said. "To practice some basic chakra control today, I will demonstrate the leaf floating exercise."

While Iruka showed the class the exercise, Naruto was in deep thought about what Sakura said. If he could scale walls without his hands and enhance his movements, his pranks would be the greatest ever! Naruto finally decided to pay attention to the leaf floating exercise.

The leaf floating exercise was simple in theory. All one had to do was to use a small amount of chakra to keep the leaf floating above one's forehead by expelling the chakra at a constant pace.

However, when it was Naruto's turn to try the exercise, his try at a "small" amount of chakra blew the leaf into the ceiling.

"NARUTOOOOO! The exercise was to use as little chakra as possible! Not the most!"

Slightly terrified at the expression on his sensei's face, Naruto sheepishly answered,

"Sorry Iruka-sensei, that's about as little as I can make it."

"Yeah, right dobe," Sasuke sneered.

With Sasuke saying something, naturally his fan-girls back him up.

"Sasuke's right! The baka is just trying to show off!" Sakura shouted.

"Yeah! What a dobe!" Ino spouted.

Naruto, dejected, went back to his seat and slumped down, preparing to sleep off his troubles as he usually did. But Iruka said something that officially put him on Naruto's short list of precious people.

"Don't worry Naruto, I believe you. Come see me after class, and we'll work something out."

Iruka realized that if Naruto had this much chakra, he should start the tree climbing exercise immediately. The leaf floating exercise was beyond him at this point. The leaf floating exercise was supposed to be for ninja with academy-level chakra. Right now, Naruto had jounin-level chakra, and it would be the equivalent of trying to dam a river with a piece of paper. Later, when he refined his chakra control with the tree climbing, he would be able to revisit the leaf floating exercise to perfect his control.

Of course, he had to explain this to Naruto.

After class Naruto went up to Iruka and asked,

"Why can't I do this leaf floating thing?"

"Naruto, you are very special. For some reason (cough Kyuubi cough), you have a very large amount of chakra. Because of this, you have a much harder time controlling all of it."

"So what will I do?"

"Well, I'm going to teach you an exercise ninja are taught in the genin years."

The two stepped outside into the training yard of the academy, the greenery of the land truly giving credence to the name of Konoha. Iruka led Naruto to the edge of the forest, and then stopped, so abruptly that Naruto bumped into his back. After waving away his apologies, Iruka started to explain tree climbing.

"This exercise is usually taught to aspiring chuunin, so don't get down if you can't do it right away, okay?"

"Understood, Iruka-sensei!"

Smiling at the boy's formal tone, Iruka calmly walked up to a tree, his hands in his pockets.

"You mold your chakra to the soles of your feet. Imagine that the chakra is a giant magnet and the surface you're trying to climb is a giant refrigerator. If the magnet is too weak, it won't stick. If it's too strong, it'll destroy the door of the fridge. So make sure that you have just the right amount of chakra for the surface you're climbing."

Then, he took one step onto the bark, then another, then another, until he had walked up the tree to its highest point.

"Wow!"

Naruto gaped at this sight. If he could manage to master this, then he could paint the Hokage monument at his leisure!

Flipping deftly back to the ground below, Iruka smiled at his student.

"So Naruto, what do you think?"

"That was so awesome!" Naruto shouted, "I'm gonna try it now!"

Now laughing, Iruka quickly gave his advice.

"Naruto before you start, you should remember that it requires a lot of practice and hard work, but I know you can do it and master it."

"Thanks Iruka-sensei! I'm going to go train now!"

"Yes you will, but not here."

"Huh?"

Iruka chuckled at his student.

"Did you forget where you are? The academy closes right about now. You should find a private area to practice this anyways."

"Okay! See you next class!"

As Iruka watched Naruto run off, he had no idea that he had unwittingly created the greatest hero that Konoha would ever have.

* * *

Naruto, after sprinting through town, wanted to find a secluded area to practice where he wouldn't be interrupted. However, training ground after training ground was already taken. So, he decided to go to a fenced off forest area he saw a ways back. Not reading the sign, he crawled through a small opening in the fence. 

If he had read the words on the board, he would have read the words, "**Forest of Death. Do not enter**".

Finding a clearing, Naruto quickly ran up the closest tree he could find.

This, however, landed Naruto on his butt.

Quickly realizing that running up trees would get him nowhere, Naruto decided to think for a little. How did Iruka-sensei do it?

Striking his fist in his palm, Naruto got an idea – he went up the base of a tree and planted his foot on the bark and molded chakra until he felt that his foot wouldn't slip. Repeating the process for his other foot, he quickly memorized the amount needed to stick perfectly to the tree. Finally, the moment of truth arrived. Naruto took one step on the tree. Taking a breath, he lunged his other foot onto the tree, keeping his first foot on the bark.

For one shining moment, Naruto stood with both feet on the tree.

"YES!" Naruto shouted.

However, this expression of his happiness put a fluctuation of chakra through his system, and he blasted headfirst into the ground.

So, Naruto found out that emotions cause loss of chakra control. The hard way.

Still, he was bolstered by his initial success, and now practiced with fanaticism.

* * *

Three hours later, Naruto was dead tired and panted from exhaustion. But he had also developed his control enough to consistently run up and down trees without many problems. 

But now the true test would begin.

From the shadows of a tall tree, a large, hungry snake appeared.

Naruto froze. What would he do?

As the snake slithered rapidly towards him, Naruto ran up the side of the tree, thinking himself safe. However, the reptile, without delay, coiled around the tree and continued to the path of its prey.

"I'm... trapped!"

With no further place to go, he lost control of his emotions temporarily and pushed off the side of the tree as hard as he could.

Luckily, his lack of control worked for him as his chakra inadvertently aided his movements, and he sprang from one tree to the next, escaping the snake momentarily.

Naruto calmed down and quickly thought about his situation.

"Dang... I forgot my kunai at home, so how can I kill this snake?"

Naruto, however, could only think about chakra control.

"No, no, no! I don't need to think of chakra control at a time like this! What could chakra control do...?"

He suddenly had an epiphany.

"Wait, chakra can enhance your movements... That's how I managed to escape the snake for now... Doesn't that mean that I can use my chakra to enhance my attacks?"

His realization came just in time, as the snake came into view with a murderous glint in its eyes. He instantly came up with a strategy.

"Alright you filthy snake, it's time for some payback!"

As the snake lunged for Naruto's neck, Naruto seemingly disappeared, and the snake looked about confusedly.

"Up here baka."

Naruto jump axe-kicked the snake, right below its head, with his chakra-enhanced body. Predictably, the snake collapsed under the sheer amount of chakra Naruto had poured into that kick.

And so, Naruto survived his first encounter with a snake in the Forest of Death, although it wouldn't be his last.

"Amazing...!" Naruto thought, "With chakra enhancing my moves, I felt like I was flying!"

Finally, Naruto decided that there was enough excitement for one day and decided to return home, but not without one last idea.

"I wonder what the limits are with chakra?"

* * *

Hey, 'sup. Remember that this is my first story on Naruto, so any help you can give will be helpful. One thing that's kind of interesting, at least to me, is that fact that I have an outline about what's going to happen in the story, but to expand from the outline to actual story takes me a very long time. That combined with the ever-growing amount of homework from school will force me to take a while to write new chapters. But be of good cheer – perhaps some helpful reviews will inspire to write. Have a good day. 


	2. Chapter 2

Hello. You reviewers and readers are awesome, let me just say. So, I will answer a few questions right now. First of all, eventually, Naruto will be ANBU level and above (I'll let you wonder about when that will be – hahaha), but he won't instantly get there; his power will be earned, not given. Second, this being my first Naruto fanfiction, I'm afraid I have absolutely no clue about writing any sort of romance. Thus, for the time being, I will not have any pairings, unless of course, the story happens to mold itself that way – who knows? Finally, I am happy to say that there is a huge amount of untapped potential in raw chakra usage and of course in Naruto. When I said that he would reach his full potential, I meant it. Believe it! Hahahahahahaha.

Absolute Control

Chapter 2

Umino Iruka was having a pleasant walk through town when he suddenly heard a shout.

"Iruka-sensei! I did it!"

The academy instructor turned to greet his exuberant student to see nothing but a shimmer. Startled, he actually yelped when Naruto tapped him on the shoulder from behind him.

"Naruto! How did you do that?"

"I learned it when I was training my chakra control! Wasn't I fast?" Naruto grinned widely.

Iruka was quite surprised; Naruto was using chakra to speed up his movements. But Iruka was still a bit concerned about his young student.

"That's wonderful Naruto, but weren't you supposed to be working on tree climbing?"

"What are you talking about Iruka-sensei? That climbing stuff was pretty easy!"

To prove it, Naruto deftly ran up the side of a tall building and ran back down, much to the disgust of many a villager, who, of course, thought that the "demon child" was getting too powerful.

Iruka's jaw dropped. He didn't think he could be more surprised. The tree climbing exercise took Iruka a whole week to master. He was so speechless that he didn't even register the questions that Naruto was asking.

He only snapped out of it when Naruto knocked on his head.

"Hello? Anybody home?"

Spluttering, Iruka stammered,

"Y-yes, Naruto, y-you were asking me something?"

"Oh yeah!" Naruto exclaimed, "I was just asking if there's any more things you can do with chakra!"

"Wow. The fact that Naruto mastered tree climbing and movement enhancement hasn't even phased his desire to learn more," Iruka thought.

"Well, Naruto, there is a whole lot out there about chakra control that ninja haven't explored. But I do know of a few things that you can do with chakra. For example, an extension of the tree climbing exercise is water walking, which is quite similar, but a lot more control is needed. I've also heard about ninja of the sand that use chakra strings to control objects, and, even a person - if that person is willing. Plus, some jounin of our village can mold chakra for their weapons."

"Cool! Thanks so much Iruka-sensei!"

"No problem, Naruto," Iruka smiled, "Just remember that chakra is all around us, and that everything is essentially made of chakra. There is no limit to what you can do, Naruto."

"Thanks! I'm going to go train now. See you at school, Iruka-sensei!"

"Bye, Naruto."

While Naruto hurried off, Iruka got the sense that there really was no limit to what his student could do.

* * *

Naruto was currently jogging and thinking about what he would do next. The city of Konoha was truly beautiful and the architecture was simply amazing. But there was one feature of Konoha that he never enjoyed: The people. They would always stare at him, like some sort of monster. They would always act so nice to everyone else, but the minute they saw him, he would be glared at with such hate. What had he done to deserve this? Seeing yet another villager look upon him with contempt, he sped up. He would earn their respect, one way or another. 

As Naruto ran along the riverside, he remembered Iruka-sensei talking about some kind of water walking. He grinned.

Following the bank of the river, he found himself deep within the forest, hidden from view.

No need for them to see what he was up to.

* * *

Naruto fell into the cold, cold river for the third time in a row before he decided to think things out. 

"Iruka-sensei said it was an extension of the tree climbing... What is that supposed to mean?"

Though the 8-year old Naruto wasn't too sure what the word "extension" meant, he was pretty sure it didn't mean the exact same, so he thought about what was happening on the scale of actual chakra.

"Hmm... In tree climbing, my chakra was a magnet to make me stick to the tree. I guess if I try to stick to the water, I'll just fall through."

A light went off in his head as he had a realization: There are two sides to a magnet.

"Of course!"

Naruto molded his chakra and gingerly placed one foot lightly upon the surface of the rushing water. This time however, he made his chakra act like the force that pushed apart north sides of two magnets.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he put more and more weight on his leg, until he stood, one leg on land, and one leg on water. Smiling, he realized that water walking and tree climbing were simply opposite processes. One required you to stick to a surface, one required you to repel from another.

Over the next hour, Naruto perfected his water walking to such a high degree, that it took little conscious effort to perform acrobatics on the water, not to mention walking or standing still.

Naruto frowned. Tree climbing and water walking were great, and they could probably be used at certain times, but neither was an actual offensive move. Besides, his enhanced movements and attacks wouldn't get him very far. He needed some actual skills to become an awesome ninja.

"What did Iruka-sensei say about chakra attacks?"

"..._some jounin of our village can mold chakra for their weapons..."_

"That's right! Chakra can probably be used as a weapon somehow!"

Of course, what Iruka actually meant was that some jounin, such as Sarutobi Asuma, could push chakra through their weapons to increase their range and sharpness, but Naruto couldn't have known that.

In fact, if he had, Naruto would never have developed one of his soon-to-be signature moves.

"How can chakra be used as a weapon?"

As Naruto thought, he remembered another thing that Iruka-sensei said.

"Sensei said that you could make strings out of chakra! If I could make string out of chakra, I could probably make a kunai or a sword out of chakra too!"

Naruto pushed some chakra out of his hands and tried to mold his chakra into a shape, but much to his dismay, the chakra kept dissipating when he expelled it.

"ARGH!!"

By this time, Naruto had realized that before trying a new concept, he should think what was happening.

"Hmm... If I just push out my chakra like in the exercises, it'll just disappear. That's why I had to keep pushing out chakra to do stuff on the river."

Naruto paused in his thoughts as he watched a family of monkeys swing by in the canopy above. One of the monkeys paused mid-swing to throw a twig at Naruto.

It hit him smack on his forehead.

"Ouch! Hey you stupid monkey, watch what you're doing!"

Naruto grumbled angrily as the monkey laughed and sped off with its family.

"That's right! Run away! It doesn't matter – I know where you live!"

Naruto grabbed the twig irritably and was about to throw it back when he stopped abruptly.

"Wait a second..."

Naruto stared at the twig in his hand intently.

"Maybe... it's the difference between holding something and throwing something."

Naruto sat down cross-legged and starting thinking again.

* * *

In the Hokage's tower, the Sandaime smiled as he watched Naruto puzzle over his ideas from his crystal ball. 

"Good luck, Naruto."

* * *

Naruto decided to put his newest idea into action. 

"Alright, here goes nothing!"

He gathered his chakra into his hand, but instead of just pushing it out, he pictured his chakra being attracted to his hand, and then forcing the chakra to assume a shape. He molded more chakra and forced even more. And more. And more.

"GRAAHHHH!"

And then it happened.

He gathered so much chakra that in a burst of energy, the chakra became visible and the shape that he was forming glowed an ethereal blue for just a moment.

Naruto gaped, wide-eyed, as the fast-fading manifestation of a chakra sword materialized in his hand. Realizing that the sword was fading, he pumped more chakra into the weapon, until it stabilized.

The sword was no longer visible, but Naruto had the strangest sense that it was still there.

Experimentally, he slashed the invisible chakra sword across the grass near his feet, and his eyes widened comically as he saw the grass being cut. Deciding to test it out further, he slashed at a tree, and to his surprise, he felt a huge amount of resistance.

"Why can't I cut through this tree?"

Suddenly, his sensei's words came through to him.

"_everything...is made of chakra..._"

On some scale, Naruto realized that to cut through something, a force stronger than the resistance must be applied. Just the same, to cut through a certain amount of chakra, more chakra must be applied.

"Here we go!"

Naruto pushed more chakra into his sword until the sword was crackling with bluish chakra. Letting out a cry, he swung the weapon across the trunk of the tree.

At first, he thought he failed, but then a hairline cut appeared around the tree. The clean slice went through the tree's base, and as a result, the heavy oak let out a groan and tipped, toppling towards Naruto and the earth below.

Naruto, unfortunately, panicked and forgot that he could use his chakra speed. Blindly, he threw his hands in front of him and waited for the inevitable.

Unconsciously, he pushed out an enormous amount of chakra.

Suddenly, a large screen of chakra erupted in front of Naruto, as the chakra he reflexively produced materialized. As Naruto opened his eyes, he gaped dumbfounded as his chakra stopped the path of the falling tree in its tracks. Regaining his bearings, he quickly leapt out of the way. Something felt different to Naruto. He started gaining a sixth sense feeling about chakra. He could feel the disruption that his shield made in the natural ambiance of the area. He could feel the chakra in his shield gradually dissipate. He _knew_ that unless he pumped more chakra directly into it, it would disintegrate and disappear.

As the earth shook momentarily due to the tree reclaiming its natural path, Naruto expanded his chakra sense more. He could _feel _the area around him. He could sense ninja training far off; he could sense the faint chakra in the plants around him as their miniscule amount of chakra needed for life dully emanated; he could sense the teenager hidden in the foliage, observing his every move.

Wait, hidden teenager observing his every move?

Naruto used his chakra speed to zoom towards the spectator, but whoever it was fled upon being noticed. Already Naruto saw that his observer was speeding away on the horizon. The only identifying traits he saw were a glint of eyeglasses and a grey ponytail. Though Naruto wondered who that was, he still jumped with joy as he realized that he had created two very awesome and unique ninja abilities.

"YES!"

Naruto quickly decided to go back into the forest to perfect his skills further, his mind sufficiently drawn away from the odd observer.

* * *

Sandaime chuckled. Who would have thought? Uzumaki Naruto, the youngest ever to develop his chakra sense, the ability to sense amount and location of chakra. Truly, Naruto would be a genius if people gave him a chance. However, he was troubled by the observer that was monitoring Naruto's abilities. His eyes narrowed as his crystal ball tracked the genin that was watching Naruto. It could be a simple matter of a genin unwittingly stumbling upon Naruto, or it could be something more sinister. Perhaps he would have to assign a trusted ANBU guard temporarily to the young Kyuubi container until he felt any watchers had been scared off. The third Hokage contemplated over the nature of this encounter and vowed to keep a close eye on the viewer. 

"Just who are you...Yakushi Kabuto...?"

* * *

Although Yakushi Kabuto strolled seemingly calmly along a path near the outskirts of Konoha, inwardly he was calculating possibilities of one certain Uzumaki Naruto. 

"Orochimaru-sama must be informed."

* * *

Well, well, well. So it seems that many people are taking an interest in our protagonist. Our young hero has developed quite a few skills now: Tree climbing, water walking, chakra sword, chakra shield, and chakra sensing. Let me tell you... This...is just the beginning! 


End file.
